Bonita India - Indian Manufacturer of Stylish and Innovative Home Utility Products

BWDisrupt interacted with Umang Srivastava & Neeraj Mittal, who founded Bonita in 2012, to know more about the startup

This business venture was inspired by the huge potential observed in the home-utility segment in terms of the gap in the Indian market over availability of international quality products of daily usage. The available products were substandard and lacked quality.

Bonita was set up to provide new-age urban Indian with high quality, innovatively designed home utility products. We started launching our products in metros and gradually spread to tier II cities and even smaller towns. Apart from the Indian market, we have been able to create a niche in the international market because of our innovative products. We are available globally across 25+ countries – USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, UAE to name a few beside India - where we are the brand leader un Home Utility segment.

We are mainly aiming to increase the depth of the penetration in the countries where we presently are rather that spread to new geographies presently.

Please share your unique key feature/services, how is it diff. from existing ones?
Bonita means “Beautiful” in Spanish. It symbolizes our aim to make our customers’ homes beautiful through our innovative products.Currently, the home utility markets are largely dominated by unorganized players who are offering these products with the most basic functions only. At this age of metro lifestyle, people areseeking out better designed and better quality products which not only fulfill the basic function of doing a chore but to be able do it in the most convenient & minimal time consuming fashion. Bonita tries to cater to this evolving need to the customers through its high-quality products which are not just user-friendly but also come in the most pretty & stylish designs and colors, elevating the lifestyle quotient of the users.

Can you tell us about your current funding status?
Currently it’s all self-funded. In future, we might be looking at a few sources of funds basis the business strategy that we adopt. Our idea is to build a sustainable model, build profits and use the money for growth. We are targeting a 100 crores turnover within the next two years and expecting a growth of 250 crores in the next five to six years. The YOY growth is 100% at the moment.

What is your existing Monetization model like?
Our business model is consumer oriented (B2C) and involves revenue streams from various sales channels viz traditional distributor/dealer network in India (selling through 1000+ retail stores), modern retail chains like Shoppers Stop, Home Town, Hypercity, etc., through online websites and TV shopping channels like Snapdeal, Pepperfry,

Homeshop-18 and also through corporate tie-ups for consumer offers with brands like Godrej and Bajaj. We are an established brand across these sales channels and are emerging as one of the top brands in this segment. We also sell under our own brand, Bonita, in several countries like USA (through various online portals like Wayfair, Amazon, Zulily, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc), UAE (through online portals like Wysada&Souq) and Australia/NZ.

Can you tell us more about Bonita's traction details?
Bonita has been very well received both in domestic and international markets. Our product offerings are appreciated for the high convenience factor along with the elegance & style it brings to the living space. Our products, offering unprecedented innovative features in various beautiful colors and design options, attract the customers and convert them into Bonita consumers. Since we offer multiple varying solutions in each category (Laundry, Organizing, Storage & Kitchen), the TG from every demographic strata is almost given a customized product for their respective need thereby not just satisfying them at the utility level but also getting 5-star reviews from them.

What are your future plans about the startup?
Broadly, our objective is to be the biggest brand in home utilities and take a leadership position in India & also to be available & recognized globally. The immediate aim is to broaden the category size and include new products. We have recently launched an extensive and unique range of Stainless steel kitchenware including the cook-ware & the serve-ware. Likewise, we would be incorporating more such varying range of products under various new categories of home-utility segment. We want to be ultimately recognized as a brand that offers a complete one-stop solution to all the home-utility needs to the customers, over and above others.

Tell us about your marketing plans and efforts?
We are in the process of setting up Exclusive Bonita stores in India through franchisee, aiming to open 15 exclusive Bonita stores in India within a year. Also, we would be promoting our new range of Stainless steel kitchenware products both through online & offline marketing channels as the healthiest products to cook & eat food in, being made of high-grade stainless steel material– something that is being done practically for the first time. We have created an expansive & varying range of kitchen solutions to be able to cater to all the Indian demographic sections.

What are the challenges faced in transition of offline to online?
While the virtual space slowly overtaking the offline market, there still is and always will be a decent level of significance of the physical stores. Hence we are not trying to convert our offline presence completely into online. There is a customer for each offering, and we like & try to make ourselves available at each channel. We are continuously expanding in both our online & offline presence. Also, given the fact that Bonita came into existence in an age where the virtual space had already fastened its place, we mainly had to go with the flow.

What is the market size & opportunity you are looking at?
With the vast country base, comes humongous market size and opportunity. The Indian urban population is over 340 million which comprises of our TG. With every household needing atleast 1 of the home-utility items for their daily household usage and Bonita continuously expanding to cater to each any every kind of home related requirement (Laundry, Ironing, Organizing, Storage, Kitchen), we have opportunities galore in India.

The growing purchasing power and rising influence of the social media have enabled Indian consumers to splurge on good things.The growth in India’s consumer market would be primarily driven by a favorable population composition and increasing disposable incomes.India’s robust economic growth and rising household incomes are expected to increase consumer spending.

With every household needing at least 1 of the home-utility items for their daily household usage and Bonita continuously expanding to cater to each any every kind of home related requirement (Laundry, Ironing, Organizing, Storage, Kitchen), we have opportunities galore in India.